Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
“I got your message,” Lord Luther Gilbert says with a smirk and a hair flick. Ah, good to know I was right about him sending the assassin. “Come with us quietly, little girl,” he says as he takes a menacing step towards me.
Creepy shit.
“Story, you getting all this? It’s that dickhead, Lord Gilbert.”
“Yeah, the cameras are still recording. Go back in the house.”
I know when I’m outnumbered. I take a step back and nudge the toolbox back towards the door with my foot. I’m okay with running.
I cringe when four more vampires throw themselves at the ward. “Yeah, that would have to be a no, Luther.” The posh vampire scowls when I use his first name. Oops.
“If you don’t leave the ward, we are going to eat the neighbours,” Luther says with a chuckle and a lick of his lips.
My mind goes to the nosy old lady at number six, and it takes three deep breaths to temper the hot surge of anger threatening to flood my head.
I hate this; I hate him. “You know I can’t let them hurt anyone,” I whisper to Story.
“If something happens to me, keep our new friend safe.” I kick the toolbox over the threshold.
“Be careful. I love you.”
“I love you too.” I tug out the earpiece, pocket it, and throw Justin my phone. It slaps into his hand. “Good catch,” I say with a wobbly smile. “Story, my best friend, is on the line. Please stay inside until she tells you to move. Don’t come out here, Justin, no matter what.”
“I can help,” he says bravely.
“Thank you, but not today. Please promise me, whatever happens, stay inside the ward.” The witch’s blood ward will keep him safe.
He nods.
I tug my coat off and drop it on the floor; there’s nothing in there that will help, and the bulky jacket will only get in my way.
I have a dozen throwing knives and some nasty potions.
I also have some epic weapons stuck in my grandad’s storeroom, but I’ve got no time to arm myself. What I have will have to do.
The vampires are all out of their cars. My eyes flick over them. I have twenty of the buggers to play with.
Yay.
I’m fucked.
I roll my shoulders and my wrists. Looks like my morals are about to be tested, as if this is what I think it is I can’t be messing around. I’ll have to aim to kill.
“If you got my note, you would have got my warning. I’m not coming with you, and I’m warning you again if you continue to insist, I will give you and your boys here a true death…” Ha, ha. Tru death. I chuckle at my joke; even to my own ears my laughter sounds a little manic.
Only twenty vampires.
I gulp and grip my blades so hard my hands ache.
Finger by finger, I force myself to loosen my hold.
“Breow.” Dexter rubs my calf. My heart misses a beat and sinks into my abdomen.
No. Oh God no.
I can’t help the worried tears that fill my eyes, and internal me slaps my forehead. How stupid. I should have locked him in the house. Please don’t let them hurt my cat, I beg the universe.
“You brought your cat?” Luther scoffs.
“Oh, he’s not a cat,” I reply. I drop my eyes to the troublesome creature that I love with all my heart. Mentally, I scream at the ginger monster. Now is the time to do something, buddy. Do the fae monster thing or run and hide.
“Kill them,” Luther says with a flick of his hand. As soon as the words leave his mouth, rapidly one after another, my knives are out of my hands and flying towards him. The ward doesn’t impede them as they fly perfectly on target. My heart thuds with anticipation.
Another vampire jumps in front of Luther and one of my blades hits him in the throat, the other in his heart. My heart misses a beat.
Oh.
Blood sprays, and the vampire falls to the floor. I think he’s dead.
Luther brushes specks of blood from his suit and gives the downed vampire a dirty look.
“Wow, he saved your life and…,” I croak out.
I killed him.
Lord Luther Gilbert steps over his saviour like his death is meaningless, and with clear dismissal, he turns his back and opens the car door.
He is leaving.
Like a living… urm… dead wall, a dozen of the vampires surround him while the four vampires continue to hammer at the garden ward. I shake my head and dip my trembling hand into my pocket.
His entire attitude to that man’s death riles me. The bastard is more bothered about his suit.
I’ll show him. I spot the perfect moment, then I throw a potion ball at Luther. It smacks him in the middle of his back, and the liquid splashes. I then watch numbly as it rapidly eats away at his expensive suit jacket.
Luther lets out a squeak, and he flaps his arms around. His men panic. They rush to help him tug his jacket off. All the while, the vampire lord is squealing like a pig. The destroyed jacket lands on the floor with a splat.
Yep, it’s petty, and perhaps I should have thrown another knife, but a blade wouldn’t have got past the wall of vampires.
I wanted to make a point. I also didn’t want to kill anyone else unintentionally. If the pureblood vampire cares more about his suit… fine. I’ll destroy his suit.
The garden ward crumbles, and with another two knives in my sweaty palms, I sprint across the witch’s small front garden and jump over the wall. A vampire charges towards me as I land. I grab hold of his arm and twist it. Crunch, he grunts.
Shit, it snaps like a twig; I frown, that’s not normal.
Concentrate, Tru.
I drag myself back into the moment and use his body as an anchor; I swing around him and do a roundhouse kick in another vampire’s face. The guy goes flying down the road.
I blink. To be honest, that looked like a bad action film… How did I do that? Ah, the double-horn magic is making me crazy strong.
That’s good to know.
I can’t see, but I hear it when Luther’s car leaves, and all the vampires converge on me at once, almost getting in each other’s way.
“Does it not bother you that your house leader doesn’t care when one of you falls?
” I block a punch. “That he cares more about his suit?” I do my best to scramble for some space, but it’s useless as the vampires are everywhere.
“He’s running away, leaving you here to die. ”
A fist heads for my face. I block it and return with a hit to the guy’s kidney. I block another two hits. But a fist makes it through my guard, and my head snaps to the side, and my lip splits. I get my right leg up and kick that guy in the face.
“Our master doesn’t deal with vermin. He is pureblood.”
Another vampire lands a blow to my temple. Then I’m grabbed from behind, and another vampire whips out a knife and stabs me in the leg with silver. I wince.
Bloody hell, it’s the same leg.
Gah. Why has it got to be the same leg. Has it got a target on it? He flashes his fangs in a mean grin and rips the blade out. I bite down on a scream. My blood covers his hand and drips from the silver knife as he readjusts the angle, and this time he aims for my heart.
He thinks he’s got me.
Without thinking too much about it, I shift. My whole body tingles, and I transform into my unicorn form.
Yay, I can shift after being stuck with silver.
Everyone around me freezes with shock. Smug, I get my hooves underneath me, and without losing sight of the surrounding vampires, I do a test wiggle.
Phew, the wings aren’t anywhere in sight. I’m so glad as the delicate feathers would be a target. It looks like I can shift with or without them. That is kind of cool and something to practise.
The vampires are no longer attempting to attack me… and… They don’t seem impressed with my gorgeous unicorn form.
No, it’s not me they are looking at.
Instead, they are just staring over my shoulder in complete shock. I scrunch my nose up with disappointment. I then almost lose my balance as I jump in the air with fright, as a humongous roar echoes around the street.
I find myself as frozen as the vampires. My heart thuds like crazy in my ears. I slowly tilt my head and roll just my right eye back to investigate. My knees wobble.
The sight makes my mouth drop… and my hooves clatter as I clumsily turn.
The roar… Ha, it’s Dexter, and he’s… He’s a huge monster cat.
Get in!
He is a gigantic version of himself. Wow. I narrow my eyes. His teeth are ginormous.
“Reow,” Dexter roars again.
“Beithíoch!” a vampire screams. Dexter pounces on him and rips his head off. I blink. He then jumps to the next one.
Oh my god, he is ripping apart vampires quicker than they can run away.
I need to help him. Heck, I haven’t even learnt to walk in this form.
Yet just as I’m about to shift back, a vampire knocks into my bum.
I move without thinking. I kick out with my hind legs, double barrelling the vampires behind me, and then I stomp with my right foreleg.
My teeth snap, and remembering I have a horn, I stab, ’cause why the hell not?
My multicoloured rainbow tail gets in on the action, slicing through the air like a whip. This new body is fantastic.
A vampire comes at me. I rear up on my hind legs, and as I drop, I aim my front hooves at his head. The weight of my half tonne body cracks his noggin like an egg, Humpty Dumpty–style. Unicorns are badass.
It doesn’t take long to finish the vampires.
To be honest, it’s all Dexter. The street is quiet, and my sides heave from exhaustion.
I stumble away from the vampires and shift back into my human self.
Mournfully, I look around for my clothes, but I can’t see them.
They’re lost in a sea of vampire bodies.
This is horrendous. What a waste of life.
Oh no, the horn necklace. I frantically pat my neck and find it still around my neck. Some witchy magic must have allowed it to shift with me. There goes the theory that if I shifted with it, it would transform back into my horn. My shoulders sag with disappointment.
Dexter sits on a pile of… I cough and choke down bile. Rather them than us. But bloody hell, it’s been a long night.
I carefully rub my face and check my leg. There’s no pain, so at least shifting has healed everything nicely. I hear a rumbling purr and glance up from inspecting my leg. “Dexter don’t you dare clean your paws. Ew.” I have to look away.
Above me there’s a crack of thunder—no, not thunder. Wings. Before I can focus, a small blue body smacks me in the face and hugs my nose. “Oh my god. I thought we’d be too late. You’re alive. You got them all. Dexter is big… wow,” Story screeches as she continues to hug my face.
“What… What are you doing here?”
“I wasn’t going to leave you to fight alone.”
My nose tingles, and I have to hold my breath so I don’t sneeze. Damn fairy dust.
“We’d?” I tilt my head. She said, I thought we’d be too late.
She flies slightly back and squeezes my cheeks together and gives me a nervous toothy grin.
“Story,” I growl.
“Urm… me and Xander.”
Ah, that would have been the thunder.
When Xander spots me in all my naked glory, he tips his head, muttering words to the night sky.
Then he prowls, moving like liquid towards me; he grips the hem, and he tugs his navy jumper over his head in a single motion, revealing slabs of muscle I can’t pull my eyes from…
until unceremoniously, his top covers my head and cuts me off from the incredible view.
Now all I can smell is him, metal and sunlight. I sniff, drawing his scent in like a crazy person. Deft hands impersonally pull the luxury fabric down, covering my bottom. His jumper is touching places he will never touch, and the girly part of me equally squeals and sobs at the thought.
Get a grip, Tru.
I make sure not to look at him and his glorious muscles, and instead, I check on Justin.
Thank God he listened and he’s still inside the house.
He peeks out of the front door, and when he sees me looking at him, he opens the front door wider; his head swivels from me to Xander, and he stares at my angel in very much the same way as I do.
Like a cartoon character with their tongue hanging out.
“Don’t look at her,” Xander grits out like he has to force the words past his teeth. He moves in front of me, blocking Justin’s view.
I giggle. “I think he’s looking at you,” I say helpfully.
I peek around Xander and give my new vampire friend a wink, and he mouths, Who the fuck is that? and fans his face. I snort. Yeah, I know the feeling.
Angel, my guardian, I mouth back.
Seeing him react like that doesn’t force me into a jealous, crazy rage. Instead, that little peek of Justin’s personality makes me happy.
Xander turns back to me, and his eyes are glowing.
Ooh, he is mad.
Story zips towards Justin, abandoning me to my fate.
“Tru, what did you not understand when I told you I would handle the witch problem?” Xander’s jumper hangs off my wrists, so I keep my head down and fiddle with the cuffs.
He moves closer, tilts up my chin, and I meet his now-worried eyes.
“Please explain to me what has happened before the hunters come.”
I draw a raspy breath and fall forward, resting my cold forehead on his bare chest that feels more rock than flesh. “I’m sorry.”
He grunts, and I squeak as he scoops me up into his arms. Xander quickly steps around the bodies and deposits me back in the witch’s garden, which is free from blood and guts.
He grabs my coat from the floor. “Here, put this back on. You’re freezing,” he says gruffly.
With both Story’s and Justin’s help, I tell him what happened.
When we finish, he pulls out his phone. “Atticus.” Oh, he is speaking to the head of the vampire council. “Can you explain why I am looking at the bodies of over a dozen vampires from Gilbert’s house?”
“Twenty,” I whisper.
“Twenty vampires attacked Tru this evening with no provocation… Yes, I have footage. Atticus, if you don’t get a grip on that pompous little prick, I’m going to rip his head off.
Is that clear enough for you? Come clean up his mess, and while you’re at it…
” Xander glances at Justin. “I need a young one registered and his sire put down for an illegal turning. I’ll forward you the address and the nearest portal code.
There are vehicles here for you to use.” Xander ends the call.
“Now, apart from the unconscious witch and what sounds like an assassin’s armoury, have you got spare clothes in that magical toolbox of yours?”
Wide-eyed, I nod.